


I'll Pick You Up

by toesohnoes



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-25
Updated: 2012-10-30
Packaged: 2017-11-02 13:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/369232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toesohnoes/pseuds/toesohnoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephanie has lost track of the number of times she's had to pick up Toni after an all-nighter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written at my [Tumblr](http://toestastegood-fic.tumblr.com/post/19246080061/it-isnt-the-first-time-that-stephanie-has-been).

It isn’t the first time that Stephanie has been called out to pick up Toni after a rough night out; she knows it’s unlikely to be the last time either. The sight of her friend and colleague slumped on the ground is still enough to make her sigh in disappointment. She knows that social mores are different now than in the 1940s, but it’s difficult to accept.

“You’ve got to stop doing this, Toni,” she says as she moves forward to crouch beside her. Toni groans and starts to push herself up. She’s been using a set of engineering text books as a pillow. Something tells Stephanie that they weren’t too comfortable. “I can’t keep picking you up.”

“Then don’t,” Toni says. “I have a driver. Happy can do it.”

“You phoned me, remember?” Stephanie points out. She should know better than to argue with Toni while she has a hangover. Shaking her head, she just holds out a hand. “Come on, up you get. Colonel Fury wants to debrief us later this afternoon.”

“Fuck him,” Toni mutters, but she takes the offered hand and allows Stephanie to help her to her feet. “And don’t ask me to apologise for the language, Steph. It’s way too early in the morning for that.”

“It’s half twelve.”

“My point stands.” Toni leans against Stephanie, all of her weight pressed firmly against Stephanie’s side. She hangs her head, her face obscured by her dark hair. “I, however, might not be standing for much longer. Is the world supposed to be spinning like that?”

Stephanie smiles affectionately, even if she doesn’t mean to. She means to be angry with Toni. Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine that Howard, that flirtatious bastard, managed to produce a daughter like Toni. Sometimes it’s painfully easy.

“Let’s get you home,” Stephanie says. “Maybe you can sleep off the hangover before Fury wants to see us.”

“Can we go back to your place?” Toni asks. “It’s nicer. Homeier.” She pauses, and looks up at Stephanie through thick eyelashes. “It’s okay if you want to say no. I won’t be mad.”

Stephanie thinks that Toni must know what she’s doing when she looks at her like that - the manipulation is open and obvious. She wets her lips and swallows, before she looks away quickly. She can’t handle the weight of Toni’s gaze or the heat of her body pressed against her side. “It’s fine,” she says, starting to lead Toni out of the building. “Don’t worry about it.”

Of course Toni won’t worry about it. It seems to Stephanie that she never does.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written at my [Tumblr](http://toestastegood-fic.tumblr.com/post/20016350295/tonis-head-is-clouded-with-a-hangover-by-the-time).

Toni’s head is clouded with a hangover by the time she manages to crawl out of bed. The clock in her bedroom tells her that it is currently several hours into the afternoon; through the floor-to-ceiling windows of her bedroom, the sun streams in merrily. She groans and tries to hide under the covers. She doesn’t even remember how she got home last night.

Except that isn’t entirely true.

She doesn’t remember it, exactly, but she could put bets on it. There are very good odds that when she makes it downstairs she will find Stephanie in her kitchen, brewing coffee and wasting time. She hates the thought of having to face her again when she knows that she was probably a state when Steph came to pick her up.

It takes an extraordinary amount of courage to get out of bed, but she manages to do it. She’s dressed in sweatpants and a tank-top rather than the revealing dress she had gone out in last night. Steph must have helped her to change, and isn’t that just yet another humiliation? The thought that Steph knows what she looks like unclothed and unconscious is one that’s more disturbing than Toni is ever going to analyse.

It is tempting to stay in bed and pretend to be asleep for as long as possible, but her head is pounding and Toni wants pain-killers more than she wants her dignity. She forces herself from the warmth of her bed and pads down the stairs, wishing that she would find an empty kitchen when she gets there.

She doesn’t, of course.

Steph is sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in her hands, pouring over the day’s newspaper. She looks perfect, completely unruffled even though Toni would bet that she hasn’t been to bed yet. Steph always seems to look perfect. The government did a damn good job with their little super-soldier.

“Does that even do anything for you?” Toni asks. “The coffee, I mean?”

Steph looks down at her cup. “Not really. I like the taste.” She passes it over all the same. In Toni’s hands the cup is hot and the scent alone is enough to help clear her head. “How do you feel?”

“Like shit.” There’s no point lying. Steph can always see the truth. “Thanks for picking me up.”

“It’s no problem. I’m glad you called me.”

The worst thing is that Toni knows she means that. No matter how much trouble Toni gets into Steph will always be the first one to drop everything to come to her rescue - even if all she has to rescue her from is sleeping in the gutter. She shouldn’t have to do it, and Toni doesn’t have the words or courage to thank her enough.

She raises her cup in something like a salute. “You want pancakes? I can make them,” she offers.

It’s not exactly conventional, but it’s the best way she knows to express her gratitude.


	3. Chapter 3

They float around in each other’s space while Toni is nursing her hangover. Steph heads down to the gym and lifts weights, her enhanced strength fueling the mindless exercise. It’s easier to focus on this than to focus on watching Toni falling apart. It’s as if there’s nothing that she can do about it. For all her skills, for all her strength, when it comes to Toni she is helpless.

The movement of her body is like hypnosis, the smooth rhythm of a well-oiled machine. She can lose herself in it.

She misses the sound of Toni’s bare feet on the steps, and doesn’t notice her presence until she pauses to take a drink. She feels like a mess, sweaty and rough while Toni is as effortlessly put together as always. “How long have you been there?” she asks as she joins Toni at the side of the room.

“Long enough,” Toni says. “I needed some eye candy to cheer me up.”

Steph rolls her eyes, and wishes that Toni wouldn’t tease her like this. She knows mindless flirting when she hears it. She has seen what Toni is like with everyone around her, both male and female. She is a natural flirt. It is as easy as saying hello.

It doesn’t mean anything, not to her, but that doesn’t mean that Steph’s heart doesn’t clench when she hears the sound of it. “Yeah, of course,” she says. “Shouldn’t you go to Natasha for that?”

Toni’s eyes linger on her face, all-seeing and searching. “You really don’t get it,” she chuckles. “I always said you’re dumber than you look.” Steph grumbles in complaint, but Toni nudges her arm. “You’re just about the prettiest girl that ever seen, you idiot.”

Steph knows a white lie when she hears one. She also knows well that there is a lot in this world more important than a pretty face. Growing up in Brooklyn, a skinny little girl who never knew if there would be food on the table, she learned that fast. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make her smile to have Toni’s eyes on her, warm and appreciative.

“I’d say you should look in the mirror more often, but you already do that enough,” Steph says after a faltering pause.

Toni’s eyebrows raise, and then she laughs in surprise. She punches Steph’s arm, light and playful. “You’re kind of a bitch beneath that good girl act,” Toni says. Her eyes hold Steph’s gaze, dark enough to burn. “I think I like that.”

Steph’s face is burning. She needs to tell Toni to stop, one of these days. If they’re going to be friends, she can’t do this; she can’t play around with her like she’s just another toy. With all of Toni’s technology surrounding them, there should be more than enough to distract her.

Steph looks down at her feet, before she looks up and offers a tense smile. “I should go and shower,” she says, but she doesn’t wait for an answer before she retreats.

Her fragile friendship with Toni is the best thing that’s happened to her since she woke up in the twenty-first century. When it makes her heart ache, it also seems like the worst thing.


	4. Chapter 4

Freshly home from a night out at a new club, Toni pads into the penthouse with bare feet. Sunlight has already started to stream through the windows, but there’s still a buzz shooting through her blood and Toni can’t imagine going to sleep. JARVIS greets her cordially, although she can detect notes of sarcasm in his tone - maybe she ought to look into his code and edit ‘judgy noises’ out of his vocabulary. If her own A.I. is snarking her, she’s really in trouble.

On the other hand, if she wanted a bland, boring system to run her home, life and everything, she wouldn’t have bothered working up one of her own.

“Captain Rogers is in the study, ma’am,” JARVIS informs her politely.

“An early morning scowl-fest, my favourite kind,” Toni says, already able to construct Steph’s disapproval for herself. _We have responsibilities, Toni_ , maybe, or _What if there had been another attack?_

Maybe even, _You can’t fly the Iron Woman suit if you’re drunk._

Buzzkill.

She stops in the kitchen to make coffee, bringing two cups with her when she heads into the study to face Steph. The sun has started peering in through the blinds, but Steph isn’t her usual, bright-eyed self. When Toni enters the room, she finds Steph with her head down on her desk, eyes shut, her breathing soft and even with sleep.

Toni smirks in amusement and walks forward to place a cup of coffee near Steph’s head. She gently sweeps some of Steph’s blonde hair to the side so that she can get a better look at her face, peaceful for once. Sleep seems to be the only time that Steph finally loses the little frown that perpetually haunts her face.

Maybe Toni ought to wake her up and prod her towards a spare bed, but she looks so exhausted that she can’t stand to. She leans down to press a light kiss against Steph’s hair - Steph shifts with the contact, soldier-toned reflexes threatening to stir her from sleep, but she calms down when Toni hushes her.

Even super-soldiers need sleep - and Toni won’t wake her, not until the world’s ending (again).


End file.
